Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner SM Sazzat Ali has called the city dwellers to create resistance aiming at reducing various crimes including snatching and advised them against taking the law into their hands.
He made the call after inspecting special activities underway to strengthen public safety at Bijoy Sarani in the capital on Tuesday.
Seeking the cooperation from Dhaka residents in all aspects of crime prevention, DMP commissioner said: “Earlier, if an incident happened, people would come forward and try to prevent it. But now they are busy making films on their mobile phones.”
“Now if an incident happens, it goes viral within five minutes.”
After that he requested to come forward and create resistance and if a person is in danger. Everyone has to work to keep the society crime-free, he continued.
At this time, he expressed hope that he will be able to give good news by tomorrow in the case of shooting and ‘robbery’ of a businessman in Banasree.
In response to a question about the hanging and beating of two people suspected of being robbers in Uttara, he said: “I am in no way asking Dhaka residents to take the law into their own hands. I am saying, let's all resist together and hand over the criminals to the law enforcement agencies.”
Earlier, the Mr Sazzat said: “As the snatching incidents have increased in the city and one or two incidents have gone viral, we have launched a massive operation against snatchers and extortionists.”
He said that DMP, Bangladesh Army, RAB, APBN, ATU are jointly conducting operations to catch the snatchers and extortionists.
A week ago, they jointly launched Operation Devil Hunt. There too, they have caught many ‘identified’ criminals and handed them over to the court, the commissioner continued.
He explains the objectives of those raids, saying: “Agencies are working together from today (25th February) to suppress snatchers. Bangladesh Army and DMP jointly conduct block raids in various places. Today, block raids have been conducted in Mohammadpur and Adabor areas and we will continue the block raids in the future as well.
He shared his observation about the muggers. “Most of the muggers are between the ages of 15-22.”
He discloses DMP’s plan about raids, saying: “We are conducting raids based on the lists of identified criminals and arresting them.”
“To arrest them, DMP is conducting 65 check-posts with the help of Bangladesh Army.”
In the last few days, incidents of snatching and extortion have increased in neighborhoods. In response to a question about how much the police are keeping an eye on them, he said: “Among the various types of crimes in Dhaka city, the easiest thing to do is to snatch.”
“But, there are no incidents of robbery or theft. Because, drug addicts can snatch easily, resulting in an involvement of all criminals in snatching,” he continued.
“The situation has been a little worse in the last two or three days. Before that, there were few incidents of snatching for a month.”
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